Search the Community

What was Gavilar doing with the Parshendi treaty? Why does he have at least two little black spheres filled with voidlight. Why does he give one to Eshonai and one to Szeth? Where are they now? There are lots of hints that the sphere contains Ba-ado-mishram, and I agree with this theory but how can one fused be trapped in two spheres? She was captured in one perfect gemstone and then split. Somebody tried to make a conjoined fabrial out of an unmade. Someone was trying to use Ba-ado-mishram's powers, to connect with the parsh, to grant forms of power, to grant voidlight, to lead them. Or to put it simply to create an army of loyal voidbringers. Gavilar's gift was a Trojan horse, his treaty and his words to Eshonai lies. Gavilar meant to seduce the listeners with power, transform them into an army and then enslave them to his will. Who on Roshar could oppose such a force? The radiants at his back, the stormfather on his shoulder, the voidbringer armies at his left hand and Dalinar at at his right. He could make the conquests of the Sunmaker, his idol, look like a footnote. He could bring Vorinism to every corner of the continent. He could unite Roshar. The sphere Gavilar kept on him has the power to connect to and enslave singers in regal form. Szeth drops it in Jah Keved. Lin davar finds it where it corrupts him, turning him power hungry and violent. He attempts to control its horrific influence by wrapping it in aluminum and protects it by hiding it on his 'precious' daughter. Then all the nosy treasure seekers come looking, ghost bloods, hoid, daybreakers, etc... The sphere Venli has can summon voidspren and grant voidlight. We see her scholars producing stormspren somehow on the shattered plains. Odium must know she has it though, perhaps it's been taken by the fused.

I haven't read through much on the reactions thread yet, so apologies if someone has thought of this already. In today's chapters, we learn a whole lot about Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother. We learn that it is what caused the Midnight Essence and that it is not entirely cognizant. Particularly interesting to me is that it had been imprisoned before, and recently loosed. This brings me to the thought that, perhaps, it arrived in Urithiru with its current inhabitants, via the strange, infamous, Black Spheres that the Sons of Honor have been known to possess. It seems entirely likely and possible to me that Amaram could have been in possession of a black sphere that (if the main theories are correct) can hold and trap and Unmade, like a gemstone with spren. Perhaps Amaram loosed it as a twisted way of trying to bring about more Radiants, or Heralds, as we've known the Sons of Honor like doing, misguided though they are. I doubt Amaram knew totally of the power that he unwittingly released (if he did) and I will laugh when it blows up in his face. Another culprit I briefly thought of was Taravangian, but he only just arrived, when we've been dealing with the copycat killer for a while now. Anyway, chapters were good today. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong if there's something I missed.

Anyone else notice the similarities between Skaze and Gavilar's black sphere? I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but two spherical things that "glow with blackness" seems notable. You might also argue that Nightblood is relevant to the conversation... And Ruin's black mist? I started a discussion about this on Discord, but wanted to share in the forums for further discussion. We talked a little bit about whether it implies relation to a particular Shard (probably not) and then wondered if it said something about the nature of the Investiture (i.e. corrupted? synthetic?). I wondered if it implies Seons and Skaze are related in the same way as spren and voidspren. A WoB on corrupted investiture is a little ways down in this post: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/53592-madison-wi-odessycon/#comment-429347 And there's this line related to Nightblood: "The blackness that leaks out is actually corrupted and consumed Breaths, the ones that Nightblood leeches off anyone who draws him." If you want to dig up the full conversation it started at 23:08 EST on #cosmere. Thoughts? Ideas?

I'm not sure whether it should go into Cosmere Theories or here. So somebody on reddit was wondering whether the Gavilar's black sphere could be similar to Connection orb Kelsier stole. If it really held Connection to Odium, it makes some sense: obviously it couldn't have been used to Ascend to Odium, but perhaps enough to attract attention of Unmade or even Odium himself. Or maybe just to gather voidspren en masse which would be helpful in the attempt to bring Voidbringers back.

Alright, this is my first post, and I don't know how to work with spoiler tags or proper quoting, but I have a pretty good theory to propose! There will be spoilers for WoK (mild) and Mistborn: Secret History (strong spoiler), so prepare, or leave, as you see fit. To the Theory! First relevant quote: Now, Brandon said this wasn't necessarily important, but I think it is. Sanderson rarely includes this much detail for something with no importance, and the fact that it was RAFO'ed means there's something more there. [spoilers!] Reading Mistborn: Secret History, we see another sphere that reminded me of the sphere in the pouch the Radiant had: the sphere the Ire has, that can capture the power of a weakened Shard and contain it. This made me think of another quote, about the black sphere Gavilar has in the beginning of WoK: (Emboldening my own.) "Something like that." I don't think think Odium invested in the sphere, but rather part of his power was taken from him and placed in the sphere. I thought of this largely when I saw this question: Odium is referred to as the "Broken One", in the epigraphs. How is he broken? I propose he was broken by the Radiants stealing a portion of his power using the sphere--possibly given by the Ire?--shown in Dalinar's vision. With the power of Odium in it, it turned black, and became the sphere Gavilar had. This would explain why Gavilar needs to keep the Sphere out of Parashendi hands. If they give the sphere to Odium, breaking it as Kaladin did in Secret History, and giving the power, Odium might become un-"Broken". This might even show why there hasn't been a desolation in so long, as Odium is Broken and doesn't have enough power. It seems difficult to prove or disprove this with the amount of information we have now, but it feels right, and it seems like a Sanderson thing to have! Also, thanks for enduring my first post.

Words of Radiance, Chapters 59, 60 and 61 Epigraphs, pages 725, 733, and 746 (emphasis mine). We know this to be Frost, the Dragon from Yolen, replying to Hoid's letter. Over the last few years, people have teased some answers out of Brandon here and there, and we now know that Hoid was actually the name of Hoid's master many years ago. And, obviously, the current alias is Wit, but what about that first part? Another quote somewhere (I couldn't find it, though) states that one of Hoid's old names was Topaz (correct me if I'm wrong), so it could be that Frost is asking after his aliases, after all, he opens without knowing to whom he should address his letter. I could be that "the gemstone" is simply a reference to his old name, and that that alias died, and Hoid did whatever regeneration thing he does, moved on, and picked a new name. I do not think that that is the case. The Way of Kings, Chapter 57, page 801 (emphasis mine) I hereby theorize that it is the gemstone itself that died, not the alias itself. Perhaps something Hoid did "killed" it, or him using it lead to its "death." More on this later. Now, I was reading through some WoBs, and I found this: Which relates to the section in WoR chapter 54 when Hoid name-drops Adonalsium, blows it off, talks about taking people apart and stitching them back together, and says his goodbyes to Dalinar. I would say that this subject was very important to Hoid, as Dalinar notes that he seems preoccupied, which is quite unusual. This WoB tells us a few things. 1. The secret society that Gavilar was part of knew, at the very least, the name "Adonalsium." 2. The secret society also knows more about the History of the Knights Radiant, Honor, and the Desolations, than the average Rosharan. 3. Hoid needs to know about them for some reason. What else do we know about Gavilar? Not much, except that he handed Szeth a black glowing sphere upon his death, saying "they must not get it." Another WoB I found: I theorize that this sphere is the gemstone after which Hoid was named, and it has since died, which is why it has gone black and weird. Hoid is looking for it, which is why he wanted to know if Dalinar knew anything about Gavilar's secret society. Frost asked if he has given up on it, now that it is dead. Perhaps he meant "given up on looking for it," rather than "given up on the alias." Source. Since Brandon didn't correct the questioner, this could confirm that the black sphere was at least a gemstone. So? Thoughts? Feel free to poke holes, theorize, and add to this as you will. Thank you for reading.

I almost feel silly starting a thread for one small observation...but what the heck...it's a free internet isn't it? While poking around pondering the nature of the unmade, corrupted investiture, nightblood, etc, something from one of the lines from the diagram stood out to me... "Powered by the spark of death itself" is the thing that really caught my attention. I've spend hours pouring over quotes and other info trying to puzzle out what the deal is with the unmade, but this is the first time that this particular line ever caught my interest. Could this have some correspondence with all the discussion about Black or Corrupted stormlight (investiture). What I mean is...sapient life is possible because ALL sapient life is in some small way invested...so...could the unmade be fueled by the negation or corruption of that life...death (specifically the death of an intelligent being) or even just the pain and suffering of one. to broaden the topic of conversation a bit...could this have something to do with how Odium goes about splintering a shard? We know that it's time consuming, we know that it's very taxing for him. Could it be that Odium has used Unmade like splinters to do his dirty work on other worlds before? The name Svrakiss springs to mind...The Svrakiss were the souls of men barred from entrance into heaven for hating Jaddeth in life,[1] and so were condemned to wander Sel, bitterly cursing their fate and preying on the living.[2] The Derethi believed that they had the ability to take of the bodies of living men and control their actions.[1] When someone who followed Shu-Dereth had bad luck or a difficult time, they believed that the Svrakiss were to blame.[3][4] The Svrakiss were considered to be a representation of absolute evil. Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother, giving birth to abominations with her essence so dark, so terrible, so consuming. She is here! She watches me die! Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it! Though all of them have some relevance to precognition, Moelach is one of the most powerful in this regard. His touch seeps into a soul as it breaks apart from the body, creating manifestations powered by the spark of death itself. Well...have at it 17th shard...I know there are holes (feel free to point them out) but don't be afraid to run with the idea a little either!

So...this may end up being one of those really short threads...but does anyone have any idea what the deal is with the dark sphere that seems to glow black...you know...the one that Gavilar gives to Szeth while he is dying? The obvious answer would be that it is somehow ties to the black spheres from Shadesmar...but...for some reason that doesn't seem quite right. Does anyone have any insight that they would care to share with me?